THE TECH INVESTMENT
Technology is a significant investment and an incredibly useful one, when the right technology is brought in. Here are some tips and considerations to help you pick the most useful tech for your company.
PREP WORK
The first step is laying out the purpose of the investment:
- What problems are going to be solved?
- What processes are going to live in the technology or be impacted by it?
- What do we already have and how would the new technology fit in?
Setting a clear IT strategy can be a helpful starting point. The Developing an IT Strategy article provides further guidance.
The third question is a cost-effective one to ask and is often overlooked. There may already be a system that you are paying for and using, just not to its full capabilities. Problems may be solved without bringing in new technology or additional cost!
If after reviewing existing technology, you find that a new technology is still needed, below are some next steps.
PREP WORK
The first step is laying out the purpose of the investment:
- What problems are going to be solved?
- What processes are going to live in the technology or be impacted by it?
- What do we already have and how would the new technology fit in?
Setting a clear IT strategy can be a helpful starting point. The Developing an IT Strategy article provides further guidance.
The third question is a cost-effective one to ask and is often overlooked. There may already be a system that you are paying for and using, just not to its full capabilities. Problems may be solved without bringing in new technology or additional cost!
If after reviewing existing technology, you find that a new technology is still needed, below are some next steps.
Define the Need
The first step is uncovering the challenges and opportunities that are meant to be solved by a system. These can be broken down into three types of requirements.
Business Requirements
Business requirements stem directly from process maps. Process maps, or flows, detail the actions, roles, sequence, and decisions within each business process. These highlight functional needs of the system. Once the process flows and related requirements are documented, define the criticality of the requirements. Critical, high and nice-to-have are a simple way to categorize. It highlights what must be in the system to be worth the investment versus what would be a bonus but won’t factor significantly into the decision. For example, for an engineering company, the design process may be critical, but it will not happen in a CRM nor can it be expected to so this should not be a ‘Critical’ requirement for a CRM system.
Technical Requirements
Technical Requirements focus on solution architecture. They outline security needs and integrations needed between the new system and other systems. It is important to gather the following:
- How many users and licenses are needed?
- If the solution will live ‘On-Premise’, does the current server hardware have capacity or is an upgrade necessary?
- How will this technology communicate with or connect with existing tech?
- Import/Export capabilities
- Integrations
- What kind of maintenance support will be needed? Do those resources exist internally?
Data & Reporting Requirements
Decisions and strategic direction are supported by data and reporting outputs. They are most valuable when decision makers across the organization provide input into their data and reporting needs. The following questions highlight how the system is meant to support the business:
What decisions are made today across the organization?
What data and reports support those decisions and must be maintained?
What data and reports are not captured today that would support better decision making?
FINDING THE SOLUTION
With the requirements in hand, its time to find the best tech to meet the company needs. To ensure this moves forward on time, assign a project manager in house or bring in outside support to get the most out of your investment. From there the next steps will include:
- Draft a Request for Proposal (RFP) based on the Business, Technology, and Data & Reporting Requirements.
- Identify, at most, 5 potential vendors and release the RFP
- A good starting point is reaching out to industry groups and peers to see what’s worked for them and what hasn’t.
- Something to avoid is the google black-hole. It’s easy to lose significant time in the wave of options and in the endless calls and sales cycles with vendors who may not meet the need.
- Draft scripts with business specific scenarios that need to be demonstrated by the vendors.
- These should include scenarios that may be unique to your business model and clearly define the complexities within.
- Host Demonstrations and Q&A Sessions with the vendors
- Assess submitted proposals against a Vendor Decision Matrix
- Negotiate the contract and project deadlines with the selected vendor(s). Be sure to include the following in the contract:
- Expectations and service level agreements including response times and protocols
- How overages, errors, and additional scope items will be managed
- Post Go Live support scope and costs
You can find a more detailed step by step methodology for technology implementation in the Tech Adoption Methodology Tool.
GET CRACKING
The above steps support you in finding a solution that fits the underlying need. Due diligence and preparation help keep costs down, minimize the frustration of staff, and help you make an informed decision that the company and staff can get behind!